


Something New

by Oncer



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 15:19:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1309600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oncer/pseuds/Oncer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Walsh hadn't turned into a flying monkey? What if, just maybe, Emma was truly give up her chance at a happy ending? Angsty break-up, minor Captain Swan interaction. Prompted by onceuponhookandemma on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something New

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything, all rights go to Once Upon A Time and their incredible cast, producers, writers etc.

He looked up at her, crestfallen, and Emma felt her stomach drop.  
“Please, Emma. What could have changed overnight like this?” he pleaded, his eyes desperately searching hers.  
Emma closed her eyes for a second, wrapping her arms around herself against the cold chill of the night air.  
“Someone, someone from my past showed up,” she stammered.  
Walsh looked at her then, and the love in his eyes made Emma tremble. He could see right through her, he could see that there was something going on. That’s why she had fallen for him, after all. He had been able to observe everything that went on behind her walls, and instead of trying to knock them down, or pretend they weren’t there, he’d simply accepted her, walls and all.  
“Do you love him?”  
“I-” She had meant to say ‘I love _you_ ’, but the words couldn’t form. She knew that the New York Emma, the mother, the Emma that had fallen head over heels for this guy, had loved him. She had been _so close_ to marrying him, and she had truly been in love.  
But the real Emma, the savior?  
The words couldn’t form, because all she saw when she tried was her family, cursed and back in Storybrooke, an unknown threat waiting to be faced. She saw Henry and the woman who had given her her false memories, and Hook, who had come back for her time and time again. She saw Neal, who she’d always loved, and her mother and father.  
The savior simply couldn’t love Walsh. She didn’t get days off where she could go out on dates and work on her kid’s science project. She didn’t get to love someone _normal_.  
Walsh watched her as she grasped with her thoughts. He took her hands and lead her over to the edge of the roof, where a low bench sat, nestled between two pot plants.  
“Emma,” he said softly.  
She closed her eyes, hating that he was still kind to her, that he still cared.  
“Emma, look at me,” he pleaded, his thumb rubbing soothing circles against her hand.  
She sighed and ducked her head, taking the moment to pull herself together so that she could finally pull herself up to look at him.  
“What’s going on, darling? You can tell me the truth, it’s okay.”  
Emma bit her lip, trying to phrase the words into a sentence. Somehow she didn’t think ‘ _turns out the life I thought I had lived wasn’t actually true, and the real me was woken up by drinking a potion that a pirate gave me, and now I have to go save Snow White and Prince Charming, who also happen to be my parents by the way, from another curse, but no biggie, I’ve done it before_ ’ would go down well.  
“It’s…. it’s complicated,” she settled on, seeing him flinch as she said the words. “This, this man that has come back into my life, he’s… an old friend. And he’s told me that some people that I love, a lot, are in trouble. I never thought this would come up again, but it has Walsh, and I don’t want to go, but I have to. And I’m so sorry.”  
Emma Swan was not a woman who cried easily, but she couldn’t help the tear that rolled down her cheek as she spoke. It broke her heart to be leaving her life behind, to be leaving _Walsh_. And dodging and weaving around the truth like this was hurting her, and it was hurting him. Oh how she hated liars, and yet here she was, painting a pretty picture for Walsh so he could sleep better at night.  
Walsh cupped Emma’s face, wiping the tear away with his thumb.  
“Please, darling. Stay. Stay with me, here in New York,” he urged.  
His voice was earnest, his smile a heart-wrenching expression on love and hope.  
For the briefest moment, Emma considered it. She saw lazy Sunday mornings, waking up to an empty bed, walking out to find Walsh and Henry trying to be quiet to let her sleep in whilst they played Minecraft. She saw the cold winter nights, snuggling up to Walsh in bed instead of braving it on her own. She saw them grow old together, attend Henry’s wedding, she saw a little boy running into Walsh’s arms yelling ‘gramps!’.  
But with a cool breeze that made her shiver, Emma was brought back to reality.  
She couldn’t have it. Not now at least, and certainly not with Walsh.  
“I’m sorry. I wish you could see this the way I do, because I have no idea how to explain it,” she whispered.  
He let go of her face, his arms slinking around her to hold her to him.  
“Please.”  
Emma hadn’t realised she was shaking until she was holding onto him, but suddenly she was drawing in deep breaths, crooking her face into the dark warmth of his collar, hiding from view. She wanted to stay there, curled up with this man, forever. Henry was right, she wanted it. She wanted this.  
But she couldn't have it.  
“I’m sorry, Walsh. I’m so sorry.”  
Eventually, the pair broke apart, and Emma stood up, suddenly feeling disconnected, like the last thing holding her to this life was gone. It scared her, it was almost like she was disengaged, floating on a storm cloud instead of looking down at it from an aeroplane window.  
Emma walked him downstairs, fighting the urge to hold his hand just one last time, blinking back tears as she told herself ‘no’.  
“I wish you could tell me what’s really happening, Emma. But I know you can’t. Just… send me a postcard when you and Henry are okay, okay?” he said, pausing to look at her through the bars before closing the gate to the apartment block.  
Emma bit her lip, wishing so hard that things could be different, that she could have her happy ending _now_ , with this man, who loved her so very much.  
“I promise,” she whispered. She cleared her throat, mustering her courage. “But promise me something in return?”  
He looked at her and nodded,  
“Yes, anything, darling. Anything at all.”  
The opportunity hung there. She could take it all back, she could change her mind. She could be normal and _stay_. All she had to was say the words.  
“Don’t wait around for me. Move on, fall in love, be happy. I don’t want to stop you living your life.”  
He stepped back, the blow hitting him harder than a punch would have.  
“There’s no chance you’ll be back?”  
Painfully aware of what this would mean, Emma shook her head sadly.  
“I’m sorry. We’re not coming back.”  
Walsh nodded, and shut the gate.  
“I love you, you know that right?” he said, his voice hoarse.  
Emma nodded slowly, hating the way her insides coiled. She wanted to go after him, tell him everything, tell him that she loved him, or did, once.  
But she couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to him.  
So she said nothing, and watched him melt away, another shadow under the streetlights.  
When he rounded the corner, he looked back at her, and she gave a final wave. Maybe he didn’t see her, maybe he did. But he walked on with a new sense of purpose, and Emma had the feeling that he would continue to live his life. He would find love and happiness again.  
She walked back up to her apartment, numb. Hook looked up from the table, and Emma noticed that most of the liquor in the bottle was gone.  
Instead of scolding him, she grabbed the bottle and slowly poured herself a glass, knocking it back quickly, the scalding heat of the alcohol burning her throat.  
“He’s gone? Just like that?” asked Hook, disbelieving that a man could walk away from such a woman like Emma Swan.  
“Yeah,” she said, sitting down opposite the pirate. “Yeah, but… he’s going to be okay. And I’m just… I’m grateful for that, I guess. I haven’t ruined his life, I’ve just been a part of it.”  
“Is that something new for you, Swan?”  
Emma sighed and thought over the eight months she had spent with Walsh. The eight _incredible_ months they had spent together. She had been _happy_ with a man, a man who had actually loved her.  
“Swan?”  
Emma cleared her throat,  
“There were a lot of new things with Walsh. Things I didn’t think I’d ever get. But I did.” A tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it away furiously. "And now they're gone and so is he."  
Hook moved to comfort her, but Emma backed away. She was _mourning_ over Walsh, and she couldn't focus on anything else.  
“Huh,” she said.  
Hook gave her a quizzical look, but Emma ignored him, a realization throbbing deep in her chest.  
Perhaps the real her had loved Walsh too.


End file.
